Laser devices comprising a corner reflector are known for example from the document U.S. Pat. No. 7,035,508 B2, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference. These devices have a waveguide with a corner reflector arranged at the end of said waveguide.
Corner reflectors comprise at least two reflective surfaces arranged at an angle of 90° with respect to one another. Radiation impinging on one of the surfaces is reflected back by double reflection at both surfaces in the direction from which the radiation came. This means that the radiation impinges on the first reflective surface of the corner reflector, is reflected from the first reflective surface of the corner reflector onto the second reflective surface of the corner reflector and is reflected from the second reflective surface such that the emerging beams and the incident beams run parallel to one another.
Furthermore, the document US 2007/0201531 (the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference) describes an optically pumped semiconductor laser device having a surface emitting vertical emission region and a monolithically integrated pump radiation source for optically pumping the vertical emission region. The pump radiation source can have two straight resonator end mirrors arranged at right angles to one another. These devices have the disadvantage, however, that a disturbed distribution of the radiation emitted by the device arises in the emission profile of the laser device on account of the right angle of the corner reflector. The disturbed distribution arises owing to the fact that radiation which impinges on or in the vicinity of the point of intersection of the two reflector surfaces of the corner reflector does not follow the beam path of double reflection as described above. As a result, an undesirable intensity minimum can arise in the emission profile of the corner reflector, said intensity minimum being visible for example as dark stripes.
Furthermore, devices described in the document U.S. Pat. No. 7,035,508 B2 have the disadvantage that these devices can only be employed for index-guided structures. In order to define a laser mode, these devices have to have a ridge waveguide.